The invention relates to microwave synthesizers. In particular, the invention relates to the synthesis of signals using a fractional-N phase locked loop synthesizer.
A frequency synthesizer is a signal source device that generates an output signal from one or more reference signals. In general, frequency synthesizers produce a signal consisting of a single frequency selected from among several discrete frequencies available by virtue of the design of the synthesizer. Frequency synthesizers of various forms and designs have been found to be highly useful if not essential in a wide variety of applications including FM radios, radar systems, cellular and PCS telephone systems, and test equipment such as spectrum analyzers and signal generators.
In particular, frequency synthesizers have proven to be essential in modern communications systems. The technical advancements in modern communications and measurement systems are producing an ever-increasing demand for higher levels of performance from the frequency synthesizers used in these systems. The higher levels of performance that are required in modern frequency synthesizers run the full range of typical synthesizer performance specifications, including improved phase noise, better spectral purity, faster frequency switching or tuning speed, and smaller frequency tuning step size specifications. Concomitant with increased performance requirements are market forces surrounding modern communications and measurement systems that are placing demands for lower cost on modern frequency synthesizers.
In general, a frequency synthesizer produces or synthesizes an output signal having a selectable or xe2x80x9ctunablexe2x80x9d frequency. Although not always, the signal produced is typically at a higher frequency than that of the reference signal(s). The signal generated by a frequency synthesizer is typically a very stable, spectrally pure, single frequency signal having low or sometimes even very low phase noise. However, unlike other signal sources such as voltage controlled oscillators (VCO), a given frequency synthesizer generally is capable of producing only a finite, albeit often large, number of selectable, discrete frequencies as an output signal. The frequency spacing between adjacent selectable frequencies in the output signal is referred to as the xe2x80x9cstep sizexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cfrequency resolutionxe2x80x9d of the synthesizer. Frequency synthesizers are most often used where stepped tuning is acceptable and where the frequency stability/precision and spectral purity are of paramount importance.
A number of different types of frequency synthesizers or methods of frequency synthesis are known in the art including direct frequency harmonic generation, direct digital synthesis (DDS), and phase locked loop (PLL) frequency synthesis. The direct frequency harmonic generation synthesizer utilizes a non-linear device, such as a step recovery diode or comb generator, to produce a large number frequency harmonics of a reference signal source frequency. These harmonics are then used directly or combined with each other to produce a desired output frequency value. The DDS uses a digital to analog converter (DAC) to convert a digital data stream into an analog output signal. The digital data stream is a digital representation of a sampled version of the desired output signal, thus the DDS directly synthesizes the output signal. In a PLL synthesizer, a negative feedback loop is used to compare and xe2x80x9cphase lockxe2x80x9d the output signal of a tunable frequency source, such as a VCO, to a stable reference signal. When locked, the PLL output frequency is typically a multiple of the reference signal or linear combination of the reference signal and other signals generated by the synthesizer. In addition, there are also hybrid synthesizers that combine one or more of these or other various frequency synthesis approaches.
As is the case with frequency synthesizers in general, there are also many ways to realize a PLL synthesizer. In some applications, a simple single loop approach is acceptable or even preferred. In other instances, more complicated, multiple loop approaches are used. Moreover, it is often advantageous to incorporate harmonic generators and/or a DDS into a PLL, thereby improving the synthesizer performance and/or decreasing the cost. Strictly speaking, while synthesizers with DDS and harmonic generators are properly classed as hybrid synthesizers, common practice is to refer to these as PLL synthesizers, since the PLL is the principle means of synthesizing the output signal.
FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a basic, single loop PLL synthesizer (SLS) used to synthesize a signal from a stable reference signal. The basic SLS comprises a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) 10, a loop frequency divider 16, a reference oscillator 18, a phase/frequency comparator or detector (PFD) 20, and a loop integrator or loop filter/amplifier 22. Often a reference frequency divider 24 is included between the reference oscillator 18 and the PFD 20. The VCO 10 produces an output signal, the frequency of which is proportional to an input control voltage. The output signal produced by the VCO 10 is divided by the frequency divider 16 to create a lower frequency signal. The frequency dividers 16, 24 are apparatuses that accept a signal at a frequency f and produce an output signal at a frequency f/N f/M, where N and M are integer division factors, of the frequency dividers 16, 24, respectively.
The signal produced by the frequency divider 16 is compared by the PFD 20 to a divided reference frequency signal produced by the reference frequency divider 24 acting on a reference signal from the reference oscillator 18. The PFD 20, in turn, produces an error voltage signal that is proportional to the phase/frequency difference between the frequency of the output signal of the frequency divider 16 and the divided reference signal frequency fref/M, where M is the division factor of the reference frequency divider 24. The error voltage is integrated by the loop integrator 22 to produce the input control voltage that is applied to the VCO 10.
In some implementations, an output amplifier 12 and a loop amplifier 14 are included in the basic SLS. The output amplifier 12 is used to amplify the output signal produced by the SLS. The loop amplifier 14 is used to amplify the portion of the output signal that is used by the frequency divider 16. The loop amplifier 14 also provides a reverse isolation between the frequency divider 16 and the SLS output.
The action of the negative feedback loop of the PLL eventually causes or forces the error voltage to equal zero. In essence, the VCO 10 output signal is automatically adjusted by the feedback loop until the frequency of the divided signal produced by the frequency divider 16 equals the frequency of the reference signal. When the error voltage has been made equal to zero by the action of the feedback loop, the loop is said to be xe2x80x9clockedxe2x80x9d to the reference source. When locked, the loop maintains the relationship of equation (1).
f=fref*(N/M)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
The frequency f of the output signal can be changed by changing either the integer division factor N of the loop divider 16 or the reference signal frequency and/or the integer division factor M of the reference divider 24. Generally but not always, the reference signal frequency and reference divider division factor M are fixed and the loop division factor N is changed to affect tuning in a single loop frequency synthesizer (SLS). In other words, tuning of the synthesizer is accomplished by changing the value of N or an equivalent control instruction that is applied to a control input on the loop divider 16.
The basic SLS has a major performance limitation in that the phase noise produced by the SLS is essentially proportional to the phase noise of the reference source multiplied by the combined division factor N/M. The higher the loop division factor N the more phase noise is produced by the SLS. This implies that a higher fref and/or lower reference division factor M should be used for lower phase noise. On the other hand, the minimum step size achievable in the basic SLS is equal to the reference frequency implying that a lower fref and or higher reference division factor M be used.
For example, if the frequency fref of the reference signal equals 10 MHz and reference division factor M equals 2, N must be equal to 1000 in order to synthesize an output signal with a frequency f of 5000 MHz and a minimum step size of 5 MHz. On the other hand, if the frequency fref of the reference signal equals 100 MHz, N is only 100, however the minimum step size is 50 MHz. Therefore, the basic SLS design generally requires that a compromise be made between step size and phase noise performance. Similarly, the basic SLS design requires compromises in terms of spectral purity and tuning speed. In short, a simple, single loop PLL synthesizer can offer only coarse frequency resolution, without being severely compromised in terms of spectral purity and tuning speed.
To overcome these limitations, in particular to overcome the limitations associated with a trade-off between the step size and the division factor-related phase noise, several innovations in PLL design have been devised. Multiple loop synthesizers seek to overcome some or all of the limitations by cascading several PLLs to achieve good performance in several, albeit conflicting, performance areas with a penalty of greater analog component complexity. The analog complexity greatly increases the cost of multiple loop PLL designs as compared to that of the basic SLS. A different and often attractive approach to overcoming some of the performance limitations of the basic SLS performance is embodied in the so-called xe2x80x9cfractional-Nxe2x80x9d frequency synthesizer.
The fractional-N frequency synthesizer comprises the elements of the basic SLS with the loop frequency divider 16 replaced by a fractional-N divider 16xe2x80x2, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The fractional-N divider 16xe2x80x2 is a divider that has an effective fractional division factor N, comprising an integer part N and a fractional part A. Typically, a fractional-N divider 16xe2x80x2 comprises a conventional loop frequency divider 16 and a fractional-N control logic circuit 26. The fractional-N frequency division is realized by periodically varying the division factor N of the conventional frequency divider 16 under the control of the fractional-N control logic circuit 26, such that the time-average frequency division of the divider equals the desired fractional division fractional-N division factor Nxe2x80x2. Often this variation of the division factor consists of periodically adding one to the division factor N (i.e. periodically switching between a division factor of N and N+1 and back again).
For example, consider the case where a fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2=1000.01 is desired. The integer part of the desired fractional division factor is N=1000 while the fractional part is xcex94=0.01. The desired fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2=N+xcex94 can be approximated in a time-average sense by setting the division factor of the divider 16 such that N=1000 and then periodically switching the division factor to N+1=1001 for a period of time and then back to N=1000. If the switch to the N+1 division factor occurs for one cycle in every 100 cycles of the reference signal, the resulting average division factor is the desired fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2=1000.01. In fact, by varying the ratio of the time at which the loop divider is set to N and N+1, respectively, the average fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2 can assume any fractional value between N and N+1. Furthermore, since by equation (1), the frequency of the output of a PLL is determined by the division factor of the loop divider 16xe2x80x2, the average frequency of the PLL will be favg=fref*(Nxe2x80x2/M).
A conventional approach to implementing such a fractional-N frequency synthesizer utilizes an accumulator as part of the fractional-N control logic circuit 26. The accumulator is often a clocked or synchronous digital adder with its output connected to one of its inputs. The accumulator adds an output or sum value to an input value with an addition occurring once every clock cycle. As with all digital adders, there is a maximum value that can be represented in the adder/accumulator that depends on the number of bits used by the adder. The maximum value that can be represented is max=2nxe2x88x921 where n is the number of bits in the adder/accumulator. If an addition operation in an accumulator results in a value that is beyond the maximum value, the accumulator overflows. When an accumulator overflows, the accumulator asserts an overflow or carry output, sometimes called a xe2x80x98carry bitxe2x80x99, and the sum value of the adder/accumulator xe2x80x98rolls overxe2x80x99 to a remainder value rem. The remainder value is the sum value sum that would have resulted from the addition in question minus the maximum value max that can be represented by the adder/accumulator plus one (i.e. rem=sumxe2x88x92max+1=sumxe2x88x922n).
For example, consider an accumulator that can represent values from 0 to 15 (i.e. 4-bit accumulator where n=4) and that has an input value of 6. If the accumulator is started at xe2x80x980xe2x80x99 and clocked 6 times, the output values at each clock cycle will be 0, 6, 12, 2, 8, 14, . . . with the carry bit being asserted at the fourth clock cycle. Typically, the carry is asserted during a clock cycle if the accumulator overflows during that clock cycle. Another way of viewing the operation of an accumulator is as a counter that counts in increments of the input value and rolls over when the maximum value max is reached.
The frequency divider 16 is set to the integer portion N of the fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2, while the input value applied to the accumulator is based on the fractional part xcex94. The overflow output is connected to the frequency divider 16, such that when set (i.e., when an overflow occurs), one is added to the value N in the divider 16. Typically, the accumulator is clocked with either the divided reference signal (as illustrated in FIG. 2) or the divided frequency output of the loop divider 16.
At each cycle of the clock signal (e.g. divided reference signal), the accumulator adds a current accumulator value to the input value. The input value determines how often the accumulator overflows and cycles back to zero. At each overflow event, the division factor of the loop divider 16 is switched from N to N+1 for one cycle and then back to N at the next cycle. Essentially, the accumulator counts the number of clock cycles and determines, based on the input value, when to switch the division factor of the divider from N to N+1 and back again.
With a fractional-N synthesizer, higher reference signal frequencies fref can be used to improve phase noise while simultaneously maintaining a very small step size for the synthesized output signal. Therefore, the basic fractional-N synthesizer achieves excellent frequency resolution, low phase noise, and good tuning speed, while simultaneously minimizing the cost associated with additional analog components, compared to the basic SLS. The only essential additional components in the fractional-N synthesizer are the accumulator and some simple switching logic in the divider 16, both of which are generally implemented using relatively low cost digital technology.
Unfortunately, the basic fractional-N synthesizer typically suffers from poor spectral purity. The switching of the division factor of the loop divider 16 between N and N+1 tends to produce a phase error or phase modulation that ultimately manifests itself as spurious signal energy or phase noise in the sidelobes in the power spectrum of the synthesized output signal of the PLL.
The spurious signals and phase noise produced by the fractional-N divider 16xe2x80x2 are difficult to remove or attenuate from the output signal of the synthesizer, in part because the noise spectrum changes with every value of Nxe2x80x2. Analog techniques, such as filtering and cancellation, have been used in attempts to reduce the amplitudes of unwanted spurious signals and phase modulations in the output signals of fractional-N synthesizers with marginal success. Typically, the success of such analog cancellation techniques is limited by the accuracy and stability achievable in analog components. Analog techniques are also invariably costly due to the need for high precision analog components.
An attractive, alternative technique to analog cancellation for addressing the spectral purity problems of the basic fractional-N synthesizer is known as xe2x80x9cnoise-shapingxe2x80x9d. Adding the noise-shaping technique to a fractional-N divider in a PLL synthesizer yields the so-called xe2x80x98noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizerxe2x80x99. Instead of attempting to cancel or attenuate unwanted phase modulation and spurious signals, the noise-shaping approach simply redistributes and moves this noise away from a center frequency of the output signal. By moving the unwanted spectral noise components in the sidelobes away from the fundamental signal frequency, the natural limited bandwidth of the PLL acts as a tracking filter to remove much of these components from the output signal.
In the noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer, the division factor N is varied or modulated in a pseudo-random fashion with respect to time. The variation of N is generally accomplished by a noise-shaping, fractional-N control logic circuit, typically a digital system. The noise-shaping fractional-N control logic essentially generates a time sequence of division factors N or more correctly, a time sequence of division factor control instructions, for the frequency divider 16. By selecting an appropriate pseudo-random distribution function for the sequence of the division factor N, the variation of N can be made to affect both the center frequency of the PLL output signal and the power spectral density (PSD) of the sidelobes of the output signal. That is, the desired fractional-N division factor Nxe2x80x2 can be realized while simultaneously reducing the power levels of the sidelobes of the output signal. It is the sidelobes of the PSD of the PLL output signal that contain the unwanted phase modulation and spurious signals.
In simple terms, the mean value or average value of the division factor sequence, namely the fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2, establishes the center frequency of the output signal of the PLL. The distribution function of the variation of the division factor controls the shape of the sidelobes of the PSD surrounding the center frequency. The result is that the noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer produces an output signal with a frequency given by equation (2).
f=fref*(X/M)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
where X is the mean value of the distribution function controlling the variable division factor N. In general, the mean value X can have an integer part N and a fractional part xcex94 and so the mean value X is equivalent to the fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2 discussed hereinabove.
Normally, the goal of the selection of the pseudo-random sequence is to choose a sequence that moves much of the unwanted spectral energy away from the fundamental output frequency so that the limited bandwidth of the PLL can remove it. Moreover, the spectral purity is greatly improved through the intentional phase modulating affects of the application of the pseudo-random sequence to the control of the division factor N.
FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer that utilizes multiple cascaded accumulators as part of the fractional-N control logic 30. While the block diagram of FIG. 3 illustrates the use of three cascaded accumulators, conventional fractional-N synthesizers that use two or more cascaded accumulators are known in the art. The cascaded accumulators can produce a sufficiently random division factor sequence to realize the goals of noise-shaping.
As with the fractional-N synthesizer of FIG. 2, an input value derived from the fractional part of the desired fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2 is applied to an input of a first accumulator 32. An output of the first accumulator 32 feeds an input to the second accumulator 34 and an output of the second accumulator 34 feeds an input to the third accumulator 36. Overflow bit outputs from each of the accumulators 32, 34, and 36 are applied to a logic circuit 38 that accepts an integer part of the fractional division factor and determines the appropriate control input for the loop divider 16.
The logic circuit 38, upon receiving an overflow indication from the first accumulator 32, causes the loop divider 16 to switch between a division ratio of N and N+1 and back to N on successive cycles of the clocking signal. Thus, as in the basic fractional-N divider, the desired fractional division factor Nxe2x80x2 is achieved as described hereinabove. Upon receiving an overflow indication from the second accumulator 34, the logic circuit 38 causes the division factor N of the loop divider 16 to switch from N to N+1 for one cycle and then a switch to Nxe2x88x921 for a subsequent cycle followed by a return to N. Finally, upon receiving an overflow indication from the third accumulator 36, the logic circuit 38 causes the division factor N of the loop divider 16 to switch from N to N+1, followed by a switch to Nxe2x88x922, and then a switch to N+1 again after which the division factor returns to N. The affect that switching the division factor Nxe2x80x2 as a result of the overflow of the second and third accumulators 34, 36, has on the average division factor Nxe2x80x2 of the loop divider is zero. However this switching does affect the instantaneous phase error and thus tends to spread or move the phase noise associated with the fractional-N divider away from the center frequency of the output signal of the synthesizer.
While noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizers exhibit much improved spectral purity compared to the basic fractional-N synthesizer, the spectral purity is still not comparable to that of the basic SLS or of multiple loop PLLs. Generally, practical limitations in loop bandwidth and component performance prevent the noise-shaping approach from achieving sufficiently improved spectral purity to allow the conventional, noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer to compete with the basic SLS and various multi-loop approaches in many applications. On the other hand, noise shaping, fractional-N synthesizers can be very cost competitive, since the bulk of the complexity introduced by adding noise-shaping is digital in nature.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a microwave synthesizer apparatus that achieved spectral purity performance better than that of the basic SLS, while achieving fine frequency resolution normally associated with the noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer. In addition, it would be desirable if the level of achievable spectral purity could be easily traded-off against the increased level of cost and complexity. Such a microwave synthesizer apparatus would solve a long-standing need in the area of microwave signal synthesis.
The present invention provides a novel noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer having better spectral purity than a basic SLS or conventional noise-shaping fractional-N synthesizer while still maintaining the fine frequency resolution of the fractional-N approach. The noise-shaping, fractional-N synthesizer of the present invention utilizes multiple, parallel fractional-N divider/detector channels to deliberately decorrelate the noise and improve spectral purity. Moreover, the level of achievable spectral purity of the synthesizer of the present invention is progressive and controllable as a function of the cost and complexity level of the synthesizer.
The synthesizer of the present invention comprises a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) that generates an output signal Fout at a VCO output, a reference signal source that generates a plurality of reference signals and a loop integrator. The synthesizer of the present invention further comprises a plurality of desynchronized divider channels. Each divider channel receives and divides a sample of the signal Fout by a variable division factor N to produce a divided signal Fdiv. Each divider channel further compares the divided signal Fdiv to a different one of the plurality of reference signals received by each of the divider channels to produce an error signal Verr. The error signal is a measure of the phase/frequency difference between the divided signal Fdiv and the reference signal. The synthesizer of the present invention combines the error signals Verr produced by the plurality of divider channels to produce a combined error signal. The loop integrator receives the combined error signal and integrates the combined error signal to produce a control voltage that is applied to a VCO input, thereby controlling the frequency of the output signal Fout produced by the VCO.
The divider channels of the present invention are purposely desynchronized with respect to one another. The plurality of desynchronized divider channels produce a plurality of error signals Verr having unwanted phase error or phase modulations that are largely decorrelated. Therefore, when these error signals Verr are combined or summed together, the phase errors tend to cancel each other resulting in an overall improvement in the spectral purity of the output signal Fout of the synthesizer.
The present invention offers progressive, controllable improvement in spectral purity and phase noise at the expense of progressively greater complexity of the digital portions. In addition, the synthesizer of the present invention is complimentary to existing, conventional methodologies for improving phase noise of synthesizers, such as the inclusion of a frequency discriminator in a loop around the VCO of a PLL to reduce phase noise from the VCO itself. The synthesizer of the present invention reduces noise from the fractional-N process and also from the phase detector.
Moreover, the synthesizer of the present invention provides advantages in terms of loop bandwidth equivalent those associated with the use of higher reference frequencies. Tuning information from the phase detector system in the synthesizer of the present invention is sampled at a multiple of the reference frequency. Where the system includes a provision for intentional, digital implemented, frequency or phase modulation, a greater modulation bandwidth is made possible by the multiplication of the effective sample rate.